Frequently Asked Questions

Customer Support

Please forward a copy of a voided check from the new account. The new check must have the business name printed on the face of the check. Otherwise, you may forward a letter from the bank stating your business name, account owner routing and account number. Support Contact: support@xenexpayments.com or fax 516.295.8851.

If your Federal Tax ID (EIN/TIN) is NOT changing please forward the requested changes regarding your business information. Examples of some changes might be a new phone number, new address, new DBA or the addition of a mailing/billing address. However, if you have been issued a new Federal Tax ID (EIN/TIN) or the Legal Name of your business is changing a new Merchant Application will need to be filled out. Support Contact: support@xenexpayments.com or fax 516.295.8851.

Your monthly statement comprises three main sections Deposits, Deposit Summary and Other Fees. The Deposits section shows the amounts of your daily batches settled and paid to you. The Deposit Item Summary shows the total sales and refunds for the period. Other fees show a breakdown of service fees on your account. The last line show the amount charged to your direct deposit account.

If you need further clarification on reading your statement you may contact support@xenexpayments.com or call us at 888-918-4409

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of requirements designed to ensure that ALL companies that process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. Essentially any merchant that has a Merchant ID (MID). The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) was launched on September 7, 2006 to manage the ongoing evolution of the Payment Card Industry (PCI) security standards with focus on improving payment account security throughout the transaction process. The PCI DSS is administered and managed by the PCI SSC (www.pcisecuritystandards.org), an independent body that was created by the major payment card brands; Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB.

You, and any third party vendors that you utilize, must comply with all applicable requirements of the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard, including Visa’s Cardholder Information Security Program (CISP), MasterCard’s Site Data Protection Program (SDP) and the Discover Information Security & Compliance (DISC) program. You must remain in compliance with these standards as they change.

Xenex Payment Systems strives to maintain a secure environment for processing your transactions as well ensuring that the equipment we supply to our Merchant is PCI compliant.

Xenex Payment Systems has teamed with TrustWave – a Visa® and MasterCard® accredited Qualified Security Assessor and Approved Scanning Vendor – to help you comply with current industry security standards for your electronic payment solution.

To become a PCI-DSS compliant Merchants can go to https://pci.trustwave.com/xenex where you will be able to create an account, learn more about PCI Compliant business practices and complete a questionnaire to help you understand best practices for handling electronic payments.

There are several types of cards that you may be set up to accept. If you are not set up to accept any of the following specific cards and would like to be, please contact Support.

Credit Card: Cards that are associated with a line of credit. These cards are issued by Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express.

Debit Card: Cards that are associated with a depository (bank account) account rather than a line of credit. These Cards can be PIN-based, Signature-based or a combination of the two. Signature-based debit cards are processed just like a credit card, however, PIN-based cards require the cardholder to enter a PIN number through a PIN pad either integrated or attached to your point-of-sale solution. These cards will generally be cobranded by your banking institution and the one of the major Issuers, such as Visa, MasterCard or Discover.

You must request authorization from the issuer to accept a card for payment. You must obtain an authorization code before completing any transaction. An authorization request is made via one of the following two methods:

Electronic Authorization: Swipe a card through or manually enter a card number into a POS device. Then, the POS device sends the transaction information electronically to the issuer for authorization.

Voice Authorization: Call the appropriate Voice Authorization Center related to Card Issuer (Such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express), which then communicates the transaction information electronically to the issuer. When calling, either follow the voice prompts of the automated system or the operator.

If approved, you will be provided with the authorization code in order to continue processing the transaction.

Approval - Most common, this response indicates that the transaction has been approved and you may complete the transaction. This authorization response is alpha/numeric and is usually 6 characters.

Decline - The card issuer has declined the transaction and you should ask for an alternate form of payment. The cardholder should contact the issuer for any questions regarding the decline.

Decline Pick-Up - The issuer has declined the transaction and requests that the card not be returned to the cardholder.

Decline CE/Call Center - The issuer is requesting that you call the Voice Authorization Center, which will either provide an approval code or ask the merchant to request additional information from the cardholder. The Voice Authorization Center will provide this information to the issuer who will either approve or decline the transaction.

If you receive a decline pick-up authorization response, do not complete the transaction and have the customer contact their bank immediately.

Be sure you do not challenge the card user. Avoid any physical confrontation with anyone who may be using a lost, stolen, or otherwise invalid card. Do not jeopardize your safety or that of your employees or customers. Once this person leaves your location, note in writing his or her physical characteristics and any other relevant identification information.

A settlement is the final step in processing a transaction. A group of transactions is called a batch, and the process for sending these transactions to us is called settlement. When you settle a batch, information for each transaction is sent to clearing networks. Based on each card number, we send information about a transaction to the corresponding issuer so they can charge the cardholder and you can receive the funds for each transaction. Those funds are deposited into your DDA account.

During settlement, you are paid and cardholders are billed for previously-approved transactions.

It is recommended that you settle your transactions daily to obtain the most favorable pricing. Higher rates could apply to transactions not settled the same day. Also, in order to be funded you must settle your terminal.

Your business: Sends all approved, un-settled transactions (known as the open batch) in the POS device to the servicer host to close or settle the batch.

Servicer host: Sends Visa and MasterCard card transactions (and, if applicable, Discover Network Transactions) to interchange and other card transactions to the appropriate issuer (e.g., American Express transactions to American Express

Issuer: Posts the transaction to the cardholder’s account.

Servicer Host: Sends a message to the Automated Clearing House (ACH) to pay you for the transactions.

Automated Clearing House (ACH): Sends the funds from the servicer to your DDA via electronic transfer. Fees are debited from your DDA on a monthly or daily basis.

Visa and MasterCard have introduced card 'Brand Usage' fees for accessing their processing networks. Effective July 1, 2009 VISA implements fees related to network authorization access, as well as punitive fees for misuse of authorization services. The fees can be minimized and penalties can be avoided by following best practices at the point of sale. Abuse is generally described in two areas:

Authorizations that are not accompanied by a settlement record. Note that the use of a low-value authorization to test the validity of the card is the most common problem.

While most authorization and clearing transactions are processed correctly, those that are not can impact a cardholder's option to buy, cause confusion at the point of sale, and impair the effectiveness of automated risk and processing intelligence systems. Recent revisions to the Card Associations’ Operating Regulations support correct processing behavior to help maintain payment system quality and integrity and reduce potential negative impacts. Fee assessment will be based on effectively matching authorizations to clearing/settlement items. In order to minimize the fees, merchants are encouraged to follow these best practices:

When you settle your transactions each day, Xenex Payment Systems network routes them to the respective Card Issuers (Visa, MasterCard, and Discover) and Debit Networks through Interchange. Every transaction is assigned an Interchange category based on card type (credit, debit, rewards, purchasing) industry type (retail, e-commerce, etc.) and qualification elements (Swiped Card, Key Entered, Card Present, Card Not Present, etc.). Interchange is the system where transactions are submitted for payment from the Merchant Processor to the Card Issuer or Debit Network. The Card Associations and Debit Networks establish the rules and manage the interchange of all transactions. Interchange also represents the fees paid by the servicer to the card issuer. Fees depend upon the interchange qualification that is assigned to each transaction by the Issuers for processing transactions. These fees are paid at the time the transaction is exchanged and vary based on processing method utilized. For example, it is significantly more expensive to process a hand-keyed transaction than a card-swiped transaction.

Interchange and Card Association fees vary in amount based on industry type, the degree to which cards are authorized, and the timeliness of remitting a sale for payment. There are several rates that may apply to your transactions, depending on your method of processing each transaction.

A refund for a transaction must be processed by issuing a credit to the card on which the original purchase was made. You must also prepare a credit transaction receipt for the amount of credit issued. Do not refund a card purchase with cash or check. Do not refund cash or check purchases to a card.

If you have a special policy regarding returns or refunds, make sure that the policy is:

A chargeback is the process an issuing bank uses to handle a disputed transaction. Chargebacks can be initiated by the Cardholder or the bank itself. When a chargeback occurs the funds are withdrawn from the merchants account and returned to the bank.

When does a chargeback occur?

Some of the most common reasons for a chargeback are:

Failure by merchant to respond to a retrieval request for a legible or complete copy of a transaction receipt

The cardholder claims unauthorized use of a card

Dispute by the cardholder over the quality of goods or services

Failure by merchant to provide goods or services

The transaction receipt does not bear the cardholder’s signature

The transaction receipt refers to an expired card

The transaction receipt fails to comply with the terms and conditions of the agreement or fails to comply with the card rules.

What should I do if I receive a chargeback?

Merchants may dispute a chargeback depending on the chargeback reason. The dispute, referred to as Presentment, must take place within a certain time frame. A request for proper documentation will be specified in the Chargeback Advice Letter.

The documents should be mailed to Chargeback Processing Center 515 Broadhollow Rd. Melville, NY 11747 or faxed to (516)962-7834. If you have any questions regarding Chargebacks please call Chargeback Processing Center at (800)999-8674 between 9am and 5pm EST

It is important to carefully track and manage your chargebacks and take steps to avoid future chargebacks.

How do I avoid chargebacks?

Chargebacks can be costly. Although it is difficult to eliminate them, you can minimize the occurrence by following these simple steps:

Obtain the cardholders signature and make sure it matches the signature on the back of the card.

No! Xenex Payment Systems would never request that you provide your Social Security Number, Tax ID Number or other sensitive information in response to an email. If you receive a suspicious email, don’t click on any links in the email or provide any information. If you receive suspicious email that uses the Xenex Payment Systems name please notify us immediately by emailing support@xenexpayments.com or calling 888-918-4409.

Card Present “Retail” transactions occur when the card and the consumer are physically present at the time of sale. There are two ways in which card present transactions can be processed.

Card Swiped Transactions: Whenever possible you want to swipe cards through your POS device. Transactions that are “card swiped” cost less than other transactions and offer more chargeback protection.

Key-Entered (Manual) Transactions: Transactions that are processed with the card present should only be key-entered when your POS device is unable to read the card. In these circumstances you can manually enter the card information to process a sale. Always obtain a manual card imprint for card present transactions that are key-entered.

Card-Not-Present [Mail Order (MO), Telephone Order (TO), and Electronic Commerce (EC)] Transactions occur when the card is not physically presented to you at the time of sale. It is important that you ensure your POS device is set up to properly process Card-Not-Present transactions in order to minimize chargebacks or transaction disputes.

When you are prompted by the POS device, enter the card number and the expiration date. Make an imprint of the card on a paper transaction receipt to prove that the card was present during the transaction. Keep the imprinted transaction receipt with the electronically printed transaction receipt from the POS terminal.

Ensure that the paper transaction receipt contains all of the information related to the transaction, such as the transaction amount, transaction date, merchant information, authorization code, and cardholder’s signature.

Make sure the card is valid. Check the card’s expiration date and other features to ensure that the card is valid.

Imprint the transaction receipt. Make a legible imprint of the card on all copies of the transaction receipt.

Call for authorization. Call the voice authorization number provided on the Welcome Card that was packaged with your device or follow the link here on our website for the Voice Authorization number that corresponds to the Card Issuer type and have the following information ready:- Card account number- Merchant ID Number - Amount of sale (dollars and cents)- Card expiration date

Write the approval code in the space provided on the transaction receipt. The approval code is required.

Have the cardholder sign the transaction receipt, and then compare signatures.

Return the card and the cardholder copy of the transaction receipt to the cardholder. Make sure to keep the merchant copy of the transaction receipt for your records.

Storage of paper drafts. It is important to keep copies of your transaction receipts in a safe place, filed by transaction date. This is especially important for quickly locating a receipt if questions arise and for managing your PCI compliance requirements.

Card Not Present Transactions include Mail Order (MO), Telephone Order (TO), and Electronic Commerce (EC) Transactions. These Transactions occur when the Card is not physically presented to the Merchant at the time of a sale. Many of the steps are similar to processing a Manual Imprint (“paper”) Transaction

Before you process Card-Not-Present transactions you must obtain the following information from the cardholder:

Follow the instructions on your POS device to ensure that you are initiating a Card-Not-Present transaction. Please take note of the following two tools that are intended to provide greater security for Card-Not-Present transactions:

Verifying the Card Validation Code (CVV2 / CVC2 / CID number): This is a security feature attempts to help minimize unauthorized card activity. After entering the code you will receive either a “match” or “no match” response with the authorization. It is within your discretion whether you process a “no match” response. This is a tool to help you minimize chargeback risk. However, in either case, you are responsible for any risk associated with processing the transaction. - For Visa or MasterCard, this number is located on the back of the card in the signature panel after the last 4-digits of the card number.- For American Express, the 4-digit number is located on the front of the card, right above the account number.

Address Verification Service (AVS): If your POS device is set up for AVS, it will prompt you to enter the zip code of the cardholder to verify the cardholder’s billing address. The decision to process a transaction, with or without the input of this information, is up to you as you, the Merchant, are responsible for any risk associated with processing a transaction.